I’m sure some of you are wondering if

this will be the name for the rock band

the Savory Center is starting as a new

income-generating enterprise. Moreover, you

are probably wondering whether Allan Savory

will be playing bass or drums. But I actually

came up with the idea for this issue from a

story about a man named Jerry Sternin.

Jerry works for Save the Children. In the

1990s he had the challenging task of figuring

out how to help create lasting change in

Vietnamese communities with chronic

problems of childhood malnutrition. He

decided to use the positive deviant theory

developed at Tufts University by Marian

Zeitlin. The theory is simple: “In every

community, organization, or social group,

there are individuals whose exceptional

behaviors or practices enable them to get

better results than their neighbors with the

exact same resources.”

So Jerry set about finding out which of

the poor families in villages had children

that weren’t suffering from malnutrition.

Those were the positive deviants in those

communities. These parents had the same

resources as the other families whose children

did suffer from malnutrition, but somehow

they had figured out how to use the existing

resources in a way that served their children.

Often the reason for their success is that they

didn’t follow “conventional” wisdom.

For example, conventional wisdom in

many villages was that you shouldn’t feed

a child with diarrhea (which leads to a

worsening of the condition). Also, certain

foods that were actually very nutritious were

considered low-class or common. Because

of the food’s status, the mothers didn’t feed

their children that food. Last, mothers didn’t

actively encourage the children to eat. They

would put the food out, but it was up to the

children to eat it.

In contrast, the positive deviants fed their

children small portions throughout the day

(small starved stomachs can only handle so

much food), and they had learned where to

find the nutritious foods for free (such as

harvesting tiny shrimps and crabs to mix

into the rice), even if they were considered

low-class. Lastly, they fed their children even

when they had diarrhea.

Jerry had the mothers in the village

identify this conventional wisdom and the

positive deviants. He also had them analyze

the situation, so the mothers had ownership

in the information that came from such

analysis. The next step was critical: He didn’t

try to import best behavior from somewhere

else, or change behavior; he encouraged

new behavior by offering incentives to

adopt it.

For example, a health volunteer might

invite some of the women in the village to

a workshop on medicinal-food training. The

price for entry would be a contribution of

the shrimp or crabs or whatever local food

the positive deviants were harvesting. The

groups would then make a meal from the

contributions so the women not only learned

how to harvest the food but also how to cook

it. This training would go on for two weeks

and usually by the end the mothers continued

the behavior with their children. Those that

didn’t continue this new behavior could

repeat the course.

The results? Malnutrition dropped 65-85

percent in a two-year period. Even when the

Harvard School of Public Health did an

independent study, they found that children

who hadn’t even been born when Jerry had

been in the villages had achieved the same

enhanced nutritional level as those children

in the original study. That meant the

behaviors stuck.

in t h is I s su e

Holistic Management & Village Banking

Jody Butterfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Synergy in Cyberspace

Dan Daggett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Foodsheds: How to Feed a

Region Sustainably

Ray Kirsch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

LAND & LIVESTOCK—A specialsection of IN PRACTICE

Keeping Things Simple

Jim Howell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Bull Beef Finishing in New Zealand

Jim Howell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Savory Center Bulletin Board . . . . . . .16

Development Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

This woman, and other women like her

in Zimbabwe, is trying to support herself

and her children on an income of less

than 50 (U.S.) cents per day. Learn ho w

our village banks have helped women in

Zimbabwe improve their families' quality

of life through a better understanding of

Holistic Management and a chance to

succeed in their own businesses.

(See page 3.)

P o s i t i ve Dev i a n t sby Ann Adams

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2001 NUMBER 79

HOLISTICMANAGEMENT IN PRACTIC EP r oviding the link between a healthy environment and a sound economy

continued on page 2

GRETEL EHRLICH

2 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #79

The Allan Savory

Center for Holistic Management

The ALLAN SAVORY CENTER FOR

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT is a 501(c) (3)

non-profit organization. The center

works to restore the vitality of

communities and the natural resources

on which they depend by advancing the

practice of Holistic Management and

coordinating its development worldwide.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Lois Trevino, Chair

Rio de la Vista, Vice Chair

Ann Adams, Secretary

Manuel Casas, Treasurer

Gary Rodgers

Allan Savory

ADVISORY BOARD

Robert Anderson, Chair, Corrales, NM

Ron Brandes, New York, NY

Sam Brown, Austin, TX

Leslie Christian, Portland, OR

Gretel Ehrlich, Gaviota, CA

Clint Josey, Dallas, TX

Christine Jurzykowski, Glen Rose, TX

Doug McDaniel, Lostine, OR

Guillermo Osuna, Coahuila, Mexico

Bunker Sands, Dallas, TX

York Schueller, Santa Barbara, CA

Jim Shelton, Vinita, OK

Richard Smith, Houston, TX

STAFF

Shannon Horst, Executive Director; Kate Bradshaw, Associate Director; Allan Savory, Founding Director; Jody Butterfield, Co-Founder andResearch and Educational MaterialsCoordinator ; Kelly Pasztor, Director of Educational Services; Andy Braman,

Development Director; Ann Adams,

Managing Editor, IN PRACTICE andMembership Support Coordinator

Africa Centre for Holistic Management

Private Bag 5950, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

tel: (263) (11) 213529; email:

rogpachm@africaonline.co.zw

Huggins Matanga, Director; Roger

Parry, Manager, Regional Training Centre;Elias Ncube, Hwange ProjectManager/Training Coordinator

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT INPRACTICE (ISSN: 1098-8157) is publishedsix times a year by The Allan SavoryCenter for Holistic Management, 1010Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102,505/842-5252, fax: 505/843-7900; email:savorycenter@holisticmanagement.org.;website: www.holisticmanagement.org Copyright © 2001.

Ad definitumfinem

P o s i t i ve Dev i a n t s

continued from page 1

Hiding Under a Bushel

That story has stuck with me because it is

such an elegantly simple solution. If you look

around you, you will see the positive deviants

in your community. Maybe you are one of

them. Jerry’s story also made me think about

how Holistic Management has helped many

people in their communities become those

positive deviants. These are people with the

exact same resources who seem suddenly

able to carry twice the number of animals on

their land, or have less bare ground, or get

twice the profit from the same number of

livestock, or get people willing to work on

community projects while others struggle to

find participants.

The interesting thing is that sometimes

people hide these successes or amazing

results under a bushel basket (so to speak).

They may be so busy getting those results

that they haven’t figured out how they did it

or how to explain how they did it. I continue

to be amazed at how reticent people can

be about telling their stories. It’s as if they

believe their success was dumb luck or that

telling the story might bring the wrath of

neighbors, the government, or, perhaps, one

deity or the other.

Some folks who do share their successes

are reticent to mention that their practice of

Holistic Management helped them achieve

such results. The irony, of course, is that for

most of us, Holistic Management helped us

break from the conventional wisdom that

held us back from the success we were

seeking. While we might spout off words

like marginal reaction, brittleness, or animal

impact , most of the world doesn’t have a

clue what we are talking about. Building

that knowledge requires a certain amount

of education (sharing of information),

persistence, and, above all, engaging others.

Communities and Positive Dev i a n t s

I don’t mean to imply that we should

cram Holistic Management into every agenda

possible, but I do believe that the more

people hear about Holistic Management (in

all the arenas in which it is being practiced),

the more likely they will consider adopting

that new behavior. Like the mother of a child

with malnutrition, those people hearing about

Holistic Management for the first time need

to see people from their “community” getting

the results they would like in their own lives.

Ironically, sometimes it helps to have someone

from outside the situation point out what is

happening in the community.

In the case of Jerry Sternin, the answers

were already in the village. The women in the

village knew who was feeding their children

what food. It just took someone asking the

right questions and providing incentive for the

new behavior. We’ve found the same thing to

be true with our village banking project in

Zimbabwe (see page 3).

This project is a collaboration involving

our U.S. staff, Africa Centre for Holistic

Management staff, and our Holistic

Management™ village-based trainers in

Zimbabwe. We’ve taken the village banking

concept used by various international non-

profits and added a holistic twist. I believe the

result is an even better service because these

women are not only concerned about their

banking circle, but also the larger community

that supports and depends upon the banking

circle. They are not only better able to feed

their children, they are also contributing to

their communities in other ways because they

have a holistic goal, not just a business plan.

While positive deviants will benefit

themselves, with Holistic Management they

are more likely to benefit their community as

well because the community is part of their

whole. In other words, they are interested in

helping others be positive deviants because

such improvement benefits everyone.

Competition is less of an issue. Women in the

banking circle want all the businesses of each

participant to do well because if one fails it

negatively affects the others through the

inability of that woman to pay back her loan.

It seems to me that such a perception of

community and business will do far more to

sustain that community and the businesses

that depend upon them. It feels good to be

involved in such a venture.

While the Savory Center in all likelihood

will never have a rock group called Positive

Deviants, we are proud to serve a global

movement of positive deviants who have

made their communities a better place to live

and have provided insight into how some of

the problems in their community could be

addressed. Even more exciting, we know that

in the years to come we will be able to report

on even more new ideas generated by people

who have taken Holistic Management and

figured out how to create the outcome they

wanted with the resources they already had.

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2001 3

Kwejani Bank’s

Holistic Goal

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of our village bank is

to improve the members' knowledge

of business management, financial

management and thereby improve our

economic well-being.

Quality of Life

To have adequate nutritious food,

respectful and educated children, and

plenty of livestock; to be hard-working,

self-employed and trustworthy women; to

have beautiful homesteads, many hospitals,

and reliable transport; to maintain our

traditions; to have a well-maintained

environment.

Forms of Production

To attain that quality of life, we must

produce:

Diverse cropping patterns, many schools

and teachers, well maintained grazing areas,

self respect, income from crops and

livestock, successful businesses, a variety of

transport, pride and respect for our

traditions, and well-preserved soils.

Future Resource Base

To sustain all of this, we must create:

Knowledgeable and progressive people,

fertile soils, plenty of clean flowing water,

varied transport systems, many businesses, a

variety of wild life, and covered soils.

hen we set out to introduce Holistic

Management to villagers in

Zimbabwe, near the property we

jointly own with the Africa Centre for Holistic

Management, we were walking in the dark. We

genuinely believed that Holistic Management

would enable the villagers to restore their

rapidly desertifying land to health, while

greatly enhancing their economic well being

and the quality of their lives. But achieving

that outcome within a reasonable timeframe

proved much harder than we anticipated. We

had always known this project was not one

that could be accomplished in a three- or five-

year plan—we liked to say it was a 100-year

project. But, given some training and a little

encouragement, we were sure these villagers

would move as fast as anyone.

The villagers really were excited by the

new knowledge and within a fairly short time

seven villages had created their own holistic

goals and tested some decisions toward them.

In the years that followed, some progress was

made, but things didn’t really change until

two years ago when we initiated our village

banking program. This program enables small

groups of women to develop micro-enterprises

using low-interest loans from banks they

run themselves.

Why did this make such a difference?

Because we were able to target the segment

of the population that was key to getting things

done—the women. And because they were able,

through this program, to effectively address

their number one concern—the ability to feed

their families—and, almost as important, to send

their children to school. First there were five

banks, then seven, then 9, and now 12, with

two more about to be inaugurated.

The Tr a i n i n g

The banks are formed by 15 to 30 women

who know each other well, trust each other,

and have solidarity among them. Together,

they undergo five weeks of training with

our Africa Centre staff and a Holistic

Management™ village-based trainer who

serves as their “bank officer.” The latter audits

the books each week as members make loan

repayments, and serves as an enterprise advisor.

business skills development and, of course, the

ins and outs of micro-lending. An important

part of this segment is the discussion of what

businesses the women want to pursue and

ensuring that each of these businesses is in

line with their village bank’s holistic goal.

Throughout the training period each

woman is required to save 25 percent of the

loan amount she anticipates borrowing. This is

good practice because once she receives a loan

and is making weekly re-payments (over a

16-week cycle), she must at the same time put

20 percent of the loan amount into the group

savings account.

Launching the Bank

When the training is complete, the bank

is launched with an official inauguration

presided over by a chief, or one of his

representatives. The whole village is invited to

attend. The women are introduced and sworn

in by the chief and then given their first loans.

In accepting the money they state out loud to

the whole village what business it will be used

for. This lets everyone know that the money

can only be used for that particular business

and that the woman should not be pressured

to make the funds available for other purposes.

The very next week, the bank members

Holistic Management and

Village Bankingby Jody Butterfield

Over a period of two years, or six loan cycles,

the typical bank member will not only

finance a new business, she will accumulate

close to US $100 in savings (despite the

extremely hard times).

The five-week training is much more than

a crash course in micro-lending. It starts with

a session on communication skills and group

dynamics—an important topic for a group that

is in effect acting as guarantor for every

member’s loan. Next, the group forms a holistic

goal for their bank (see “Kwejani Bank’s Holistic

Goal”) and then develops the bylaws under

which they will operate and govern themselves.

The remainder of the training deals with

W

continued on page 4

4 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #79

meet to make their first loan repayment--

principal plus 15 percent interest (local

banks charge 70 percent). But more than

banking goes on at these meetings. A bank

officer/Holistic Management™ village-based

facilitator is always present to provide

assistance. He or she has a copy of the Holistic

Management testing questions, which have

been translated into Ndebele and Nambya, and

makes sure the women get practice using them

each week. Each time the women borrow

additional funds, which most do at the end

of each 16-week loan cycle, their use of these

funds must pass the testing. They must also

check to make sure their business is still

taking them toward their holistic goal.

Each bank has a modified version of the

Holistic Management™ model that hangs on

the wall of the meeting room. Arrows move

around this version of the model illustrating,

for instance, that the village banks were

brought about through the tools of creativity

(“ideas”) and money, and that the micro-

businesses they produce lead directly to the

quality of life described in the holistic goal.

The Tie to the Land

Arrows also illustrate how critical the tools

of “grazing livestock” and animal impact are to

creating ground cover and restoring their water

soon, we believe grass poaching will be a thing

of the past, because each of the villages,

starting with the core we are working with

now and radiating out from there, will be

planning their grazing, seeing the benefits, and

understanding whythings are improving.

Something to Be Proud of

That we have achieved as much as we

have in a country that is so heavily mired in

political and economic turmoil (Zimbabwe’s

is currently the world’s fastest shrinking

economy) is amazing even to us here in

Albuquerque. Just consider these statistics

from our village banks:

■ Accumulated savings of the members

in our 12 village banks, which have been

operating from two months to two years,

is just under US$15,000.

■ A typical bank member is a mother who

is trying to support herself and her children,

or grandchildren, on an income of less than

50 U.S. cents per day.

■ Over a period of two years, or six loan

cycles, the typical bank member will not only

finance a new business, she will accumulate

close to US$100 in savings (despite the

extremely hard times).

■ As a bank member’s business grows,

family income will double, enabling the

member to meet her family’s basic food

needs.

(Note: We’ve used the official exchange rate

of 55 Z$ to 1 US$ to arrive at these figures.

The “unofficial rate” varies between

Z$120-200 to 1 US$.)

Less tangible is the change in the women

themselves—in their levels of confidence and

feelings of empowerment. The Federation for

International Community Assistance (FINCA),

who trained our staff in village banking,

mentions this specifically: “Poverty is not only

the lack of money,” they say in a brochure, “it

is also a lack of self-confidence” revealed in

such statements as: “I can’t. I am illiterate. I am

alone, dependent.” It is a mental trap. Village

banking can change that attitude.

That it really can is borne out in a

statement made to us by Monica Sibanda, a

member of the Vusisizwe Village Bank: “I can

neither read nor write, but I know business.

I sell tobacco, sugar, salt and opaque beer

that I brew myself. I have never failed to

make my repayments. Thanks to Holistic

Management, I can now walk into any

bank with confidence.”

cycle to health, as described in their holistic

goal. The women, although not responsible

for livestock herding, now realize that if

their village water sources dry up, all their

businesses will eventually fail. They are

beginning to discuss this with their relatives

and neighbors and the awareness throughout

the community is growing. Village songs and

slogans now point out the damage done by

“too few animals wandering around.”

The men in one village were taught

how to plan their grazing and managed to

combine their animals into one larger herd of

about 500 for a season. But the exercise was

both impractical and premature. They had

no facilities for watering a large herd—each

animal had to drink from a bowl of hand-

pumped water, and only about half the herd

could water in a single day. Nonetheless the

men stuck with it and by the end of the

season had grown more grass than most

ever remembered seeing. But, it was soon

“poached” by herds from neighboring villages

that had long ago run short of grass.

We’ve now established banks in those

villages, however, and the women are talking.

We’re working on a plan to assist the villagers

in building adequate watering facilities (using

solar pumps and inexpensive reservoirs) to

make the larger herds feasible. And one day

Weekly Meetings

Bank members meet weekly to conduct their banking business, to test decisions toward

their holistic goal, and to further their understanding of Holistic Management. Here's a

self-profile of one member:

“At the age of 67, I, Sarah Ncube, am still

energetic and compete with the young ladies in

business. I make and sell grass baskets and mats.

The tomatoes in my garden are now ready for

marketing. I also sell sweet reeds, groundnuts,

sweet potatoes, cowpeas and mfushwa (dried

cowpea leaves).

So far, I have managed to pay school fees for

my grandchildren and I bought four goats with

my savings.

Holistic Management has taught me:

1. How to sell my goods and save some money for

future use.

2. That ground cover is the key to successful

businesses.

3. To think before I act.

Holistic Management and Village Bankingcontinued from page 3

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2001 5

sort, scores of which have been described

within the pages of IN PRACTICE.

Restoration as Product

The challenge here is to find a way for

us to stop preaching to one another. I know

ranchers can produce this kind of value, and

you know it, but the general public doesn’t

know it. The problem is, I’ve been in the

business of telling the public about ranchers

producing environmental value for long

enough to be painfully aware that just telling

them doesn’t work. I wrote a book about it,

Beyond the Rangeland Conflict: T oward a

West That Works, that was nominated for a

Pulitzer Prize and sold relatively well, and I

have given well over a hundred talks about

ranchers producing environmental value all

over the West to audiences that range from

ranchers to environmental activists to activist

vegetarians. In spite of my efforts and the

efforts a lot of other very good

communicators, including Allan Savory, the

fact that ranchers can actually restore

ecosystems to a state of health and sustain

them that way is so far off the general

public’s radar screen that most media treat it

as a total impossibility too inconceivable to

even mention in any article about rangeland

issues. In those articles, “cattle grazing” or

“ranching” is treated as a synonym for

“devastating,” and all ranching is treated as

if it is uniformly and universally destructive.

Puzzling over how to deal with this

dilemma it occurred to me that the most

effective way to convince anyone that you

can produce anything is to sell it to them

and make good on the delivery. No one

debates the existence of Big Macs. They just

buy them and eat them. Nor does anyone

argue about where Big Macs come from the

way lots of people argue about whether

environmental restorations come from

ranchers or from Nature.

With that in mind, working with Norm

Lowe who has a B.S. in Range Management,

and his wife Gail, a Certified Public

Accountant, I created an environmental

organization named EcoResults. EcoResults

Synergy in Cyberspace

by Dan Daggett

continued on page 6

s commodity prices continue the overall

downward trend that is characteristic

of an economy based on growth

and increasing productivity, a lot of holistic

managers are looking for new goods and

services to market to supplement their

income and support their quality of life.

Not surprisingly, some have come up with

the idea of marketing the enhanced

environmental health Holistic Management

creates on their ranches.

Some ranchers have been able to do this

by marketing their beef or other products as

environmentally beneficial, predator friendly,

etc. A few have begun marketing the

additional wildlife that their stewardship

produces to wildlife watchers, photographers,

and to hunters where state laws permit.

Some market the open space their ranches

produce by selling conservation easements

or by selling a few trophy homesites placed

so they don’t interfere with stewardship

operations. A growing number of ranchers

have even begun to seek grants to fund

management projects directed at making the

land healthier or at creating some specific

environmental value such as habitat for an

endangered species.

An Environmental Va l u e

In spite of all this, in a price-driven

marketplace, “niche” marketing seems to be

proving too limited to support the full scope

of the demand for environmental restoration

and sustainable stewardship. It’s not doing the

job for ranchers either. One measure of this

shortfall is the fact that agricultural land in

the West, including ranch land, is being

converted to development at a rate that has

been estimated at an acre a minute.

Ranchers thus find themselves in the

extremely odd situation of being able to

produce a type of value most in demand by

contemporary society, environmental value,

but going out of business because there is

no effective way to market that value.

This is beginning to change, albeit slowly.

Some members of the environmentally

concerned public have realized that ranchers

can produce one product for which they are

quite willing to pay. That product is open

space. Whatever you think of conservation

easements, they form an example of a direct

production and consumption relationship of

an environmental value between ranching

and the environmentally concerned public.

Having realized that ranchers produce

open space, a few of us within the urban

environmental community are becoming

aware of the fact that they produce other

kinds of environmental value, too. And while

it’s true that some of them do it better than

others, it’s also true that, in some cases,

ranchers can produce certain kinds of

environmental results more effectively

than anyone else.

The kind of environmental value I’m

talking about, here, is the kind that Arizona

rancher Terry Wheeler produces when he

transforms piles of barren mine tailings into

functioning grasslands using livestock as the

agent to facilitate the application of several

of the Holistic Management tools, (animal

impact, living organisms, rest, human

creativity, and money and labor). Another

example is provided by David Ogilvie, who

restored the riparian forest along the Gila

River that flows through his ranch to such

a state of health that it now supports the

largest known population of an endangered

bird, the southwestern willow flycatcher,

and significant populations of several

other threatened, endangered, and

sensitive species.

Ogilvie’s U-Bar has out paced all

preservationist efforts to increase numbers

of this bird by a minimum of 40 percent.

There are plenty of other examples of this

“One thing we have

found is that all of the

projects that have qualified

for inclusion in EcoResults

have been firmly rooted

in Holistic Management.”

A

6 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #79

Holistic Management. In fact, we use the

model to help us select projects that qualify.

Once EcoResults gets going we expect

to feature a lot of Success Stories and

Restorations in Progress that come to us is an internet-based catalog of sorts filled

with the kinds of ecological restorations

produced by rural stewards that I described

above. EcoResults’ mission has three parts.

The first is to let people know in terms that

are as undeniable as possible (dramatic

before and after photos is the best way I

know) that rural land managers can and do

restore ecosystems to health and sustain

them that way.

EcoResults also provides a means by

which those of us who value healthy

ecosystems can reward those who produce

them by providing monetary support or at

least by giving the ecosystem restorers credit

for doing so. EcoResults raises monetary

support for rangeland restorations via grants,

individual contributions, which we accept

right over the web, and sponsorships from

for-profit businesses. To date we have

received a startup grant from the Collective

Heritage Institute of Santa Fe, New Mexico, a

project sponsorship from Teva Sports Sandals

for a watershed restoration in the Rio Puerco

watershed near Cuba, New Mexico, and

several individual contributions. And we

have a number of additional grants and

sponsorships pending.

The third component of our mission is

to promote the restoration of ecosystems of

the American West to a state of health and

sustainability by rewarding rural land

managers who produce that result. On our

web site, we try to achieve our mission in

terms that are as undeniable as possible by

presenting a series of Success Stories before

we offer our Restorations in Progress. Thus

we provide potential contributors with

evidence of the effectiveness of the methods

used in our restorations, and of the stewards

who apply them, before we offer them an

opportunity to support an ongoing or

proposed restoration.

Spreading the Wo r d

Readers of IN PRACTICE will recognize

many of our success stories and many of the

stewards responsible for them. Absolutely,

you will recognize the practices those

stewards use to get their results. One thing

that we have found is that all of the projects

that have qualified for inclusion in

EcoResults have been firmly rooted in

Synergy in Cyberspace

continued from page 5via the Holistic Management network. We

also hope to earn support from individuals,

foundations, and businesses that the Savory

Center has influenced. Those who

understand that ranchers really can produce

environmental value may be

interested in the projects we

offer. At the same time, we

expect that our activities will

create greater support and

acceptance for Holistic

Management and the Savory

Center. In fact, I’ve been told

we’ve already done that.

The value of expanding this

synergy seems obvious. A lot of

people who thought the idea

that livestock can be used to

benefit the land was absurd,

changed their minds after seeing

the results this approach can

produce in my slide show. And a

lot of people, both urban and

rural, who didn’t know anything

about Holistic Management were

a lot more interested in learning

about it after seeing those same

slides. Now tens of thousands

can see them via the EcoResults

web site.

At present EcoResults is still

a startup, but a pretty successful

one. We first went on line at the

end of November 2000. As of

June, 2001 our web site had

received more than 25,000 hits.

What readers of IN PRACTICE

can do to expand this record of

success and to expand our

synergy with the Holistic Management

community is to tell others about us. Give

them our web address, www.ecoresults.org,

and suggest that they give us a look.

Environmentalist and writer, Dan

Dagget, wrote Beyond The Rangeland

Conflict: Toward a West That Works and

was honored as one of the top one

hundred grass roots environmental

activists in America by the Sierra Club

for its centennial celebration in 1992.

He is a sought-after speaker who has given

more than a hundred talks around the

West on the outstanding results

environmentalists and ranchers can

achieve by working together in a

collaborative, goal-directed manner.

At the end of the summer

growing season

Before

Next Spring

Tony and Jerrie Tipton's restoration of a

gold mine site in central Nevada provides

the dramatic before and after images that

get EcoResults' point across.

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2001 7

is underlain with porous limestone means

surface and sub-surface runoff are major

environmental concerns. But in 1987, their

Earth-Be-Glad farm started switching crop

acres to paddocks for management-intensive

rotational grazing. And in the early 1990s, the

Rupprechts adopted Holistic Management as a

way of melding their goal of protecting the

land with the desire to provide a good living

for themselves.

And true to the Holistic Management

principle of taking the time to monitor

progress, the Rupprechts are constantly on

the lookout for indications that what

they are doing is right for the land, as

well as themselves and the community.

There are plenty of signs they are

indeed on the right track.

For example, a recent early summer

hike across the more than 250 acres the

Rupprechts farm revealed a thriving cow-

calf herd and a distinct lack of erosion

(despite a recent gully-washer rain that

had left deep rills in neighboring crop

fields). Mike, Jennifer and their teenaged

daughter, Johanna, identified several

grassland songbirds—both visually and

by song—as they walked through the

paddocks. To them, the presence of

bobolinks and dickcissels is more than a

pleasant distraction during chore time: the

birds also tell them that their farm is healthy

from the ground up. “We kind of came at it

from the soils perspective and then discovered

birds and went from there,” says Mike. “That

was exciting.”

Environmentalists and natural resource

professionals are excited about the Rupprechts’

good stewardship as well. Soil scientists have

expressed amazement at the level of organic

activity in their fields. The family has hosted

visitors from a local state park on “farm

conservation tours,” as well as participants in an

eight-state environmental education conference.

A favorite stop on these tours is a heavy-duty

stone erosion control structure built by the

Civilian Conservation Corps in 1934. It was

constructed because of horrendous gully

erosion in the area. But today the structure is

surrounded by deep-rooted grasses and stable

F o o d s h e d s — H ow to Feed a Region Sustainablyby Ray Kirsch

continued on page 8

ith the rise of consumer interest

in healthy foods and a healthy

environment has come an interest

in the idea of the foodshed, or regional food

system. Just as environmentalists use the

“boundaries” of ecosystems and watersheds to

assess environmental health, those consumers

and producers interested in creating a truly

sustainable agriculture (and, therefore,

civilization) are using the idea of foodsheds

as a practical organizing tool for applying

holistic principles.

Communities need holistic approaches

to monitoring and decision-making; they

need opportunities to put into practice

identifiable steps toward common goals.

Even individuals doing good things for

their land or community must sometimes

be encouraged to see the link between

land management, environmental health,

clean food, and thriving communities.

The health of one affects the health of all.

When communities adopt this health

equivalency, and if they combine it with

systems thinking and Holistic Management,

then regional food systems begin to

happen. Not independent cul-de-sacs of

food, but self-reliant, interdependent

regions that produce food, fiber, and the

means to preserve this production. In the

Upper Midwest, Land Stewardship Project

(LSP)—a non-profit, membership organization—

is thinking like a foodshed. LSP is

demonstrating and celebrating the connection

between food and farms, personal health

and community health. We’re empowering

communities to identify small, practical

steps toward health and sustainability.

Feeding the Wo r l d

Too often the refrain is, “We must feed the

world.” This expression has been used by U. S.

Department of Agriculture officials, county

extension agents, faculty of agricultural colleges,

and even farmers, to give a noble purpose to

their work. It has implied that without a large

supply of cheap grains produced by American

farmers, the world will go hungry. It has

justified the focus on increasing crop yields

through large-scale operations at the expense

of the environment, independent family-sized

farms, and healthy rural communities.

Even worse, the expression is a sham. The

United States doesn’t feed the world; we sell

commodities to those in the world who can

afford to buy them. The hungry in developing

countries aren’t buying hams from Minnesota

or even our corn and soybeans; most of these

crops are exported for use as animal feed.

Danish hams aren’t found on the table of

hungry Africans or Asians either. No one can

deny that the world must be fed, but the

system dominated by the likes of Archer

Daniels Midland—self proclaimed “supermarket

to the world”—won’t do it.

Think what it would mean if farmers and

other people in the agricultural sector found a

noble mission in the expression, “We must feed

the region.” If we think like a foodshed, if we

think holistically, then the only long-term,

sustainable way to feed the world is for farmers

in each region to produce as much of the food

needed in that area as possible, using practices

that do not degrade the land, and receive a fair

share of the money people pay for their food.

Addressing the Root Cause

For Jennifer and Mike Rupprecht, the

success of their farming enterprise isn’t just

based on bushels of corn or pounds of beef

produced per acre. It goes much deeper than

that. “Our longer term goal is to keep building

up the land and leave it in better condition

than we found it,” says Mike, who farms near

the southeast Minnesota community of

Lewiston. “That starts with the soil.”

Good care of the soil is tough in the

Rupprechts’ part of the state—steep land that

W

Holistic Managers Jennifer, Johanna, and Mike

Rupprecht are contributing to their foodshed.

8 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #79

out and celebrate local, sustainably produced

foods. Additionally, the seal directs consumers

to educational food-buying information that

helps them make the link between their food

choices and their health. The long-term goal

of the program is to reward good stewardship

and help farms and ranches become more

economically viable, environmentally sound,

and socially responsible.

Approximately a third of LSP members are

farmers, a third are non-farm rural residents

and a third are city/suburban dwellers. We

thought we should take advantage of that mix

and connect these people, so we developed the

Stewardship Food Network. The network is a

group of over 100 farmers who direct-market a

variety of foods—vegetables, meat, cheese, eggs,

honey. They range from farmers who are very

sophisticated about marketing, to people who

are just getting started. LSP distributes basic

information about these farms to all of its

members in hopes of making food connections

that cross the rural-urban “boundary.” We’re

helping our non-farmer members “put a face on

their food.” Whenever possible, people should

know who’s producing their food and how

soil; it’s a mute monument to the regenerative

capabilities of the land if we work with it.

Toward a Holistic Foodshed

Improving the land is important, but the

Rupprechts also have bills to pay. For several

years now, the Rupprechts have been capturing

more of the food dollar by direct marketing

beef and chickens to consumers in the area.

These products are free of antibiotics,

pesticides, growth hormones, and genetically

modified organisms. And, as visitors to the farm

can attest, the beef and chicken are also very

friendly to the land. When marketing their

products, the Rupprechts promote the earth-

friendly nature of their farming systems, giving

some ecologically-conscious consumers in the

area a chance to shop their beliefs.

The family would like to market more

of their production straight to appreciative

consumers. But farming the land in a

sustainable manner is more than a full time

job. There are only so many farmers’ markets

one can attend, only so much time for

contacting retailers and consumers through

phone calls and personal visits. So as Land

Stewardship Project members, the Rupprechts

took some “practical foodshed steps” including

the decision to join a Stewardship Food

Network and to certify their beef with the

Midwest Food Alliance.

Practical Foodshed Steps

Land Stewardship Project began working

with farmers in the 1980s to develop farming

practices that were better for the land and

more profitable for the farmer. We realized in

the mid-’90s that even the best stewards of the

land were not going to survive economically

unless they received better prices. As a result,

LSP and its member farmers began to focus on

marketing as a means to keep sustainable

farmers on the land. “Linking Food, Land and

People” became a larger part of LSP’s mission

as we developed several programs to make the

connection between consumers, farms, and

communities. Two of the more innovative

programs are the Midwest Food Alliance and

the Stewardship Food Network.

LSP has collaborated with Cooperative

Development Services (a Wisconsin-based non-

profit) to create a “seal of approval” program

known as the Midwest Food Alliance (MWFA).

This program uses a seal (eco-label) to point

F o o d s h e d s — H ow to Feed a Region Sustainablycontinued from page 7

they’re producing it. That’s also why we

pioneered a web site (www.prairiefare.com) for

local farmers marketing meat and produce

directly to consumers.

Our hope at LSP is that the combination of

these small, practical steps will begin to expand

the discussion and implementation of a

sustainable, regional foodshed. Each of these

steps/programs needs to be nurtured, to be put

into a context where they are viable and can

grow. So we try to think and work like a

foodshed; to cultivate relationships and the

equivalency of personal and community health.

We’re on the right path—using practical steps

and holistic foodshed thinking—to sustainable

farms, foods, and communities. We’re setting

our goals, we’re monitoring, we’re assessing our

results on a foodshed scale. We have to; our

health and our future depend upon it.

Ray Kirsch is an LSP staff member and

Farm Coordinator for the Midwest Food

Alliance. He can be reached by calling

651/653-0618, or e-mailing:

rkirsch@landste wardshipproject.org.

Information about the Food Alliance and its

programs in the Midwest and Northwest can be

found at: www.thefoodalliance.org.

Information about all of LSP’s programs can

be found at www.landstewardshipproject.org.

Your TurnHere are three things you can do to help support a sustainable regional food system.

1. Help people vote with their food dollar—be an active producer and consumer. If you

would like to make the switch to feeding your community rather than playing the

commodities market or being a victim to it, LSP has several food and farm connection

resources available in print and on their web site (www.landstewardshipproject.org).

2. Get involved—be an active citizen. You can also make a difference with the votes you cast

or the projects you contribute your time and energy toward. We need elected officials that

recognize the problems of our existing food system—officials who will fight subsidies for

industrial agriculture and support programs that reward farmers for land stewardship. LSP

fights for fair markets and state and federal policies that support independent, sustainable

farmers. We need your participation to make sustainable policies a reality.

3. Join the Land Stewardship Project. To learn more about what we are doing and how

you can do the same thing in your area, become a member of the Land Stewardship Project.

Membership includes a year’s subscription to our nationally recognized publication, the

Land Ste wardship Letter , regular updates on food and agriculture issues that affect you, and

the political power that comes from joining together with others who share your values.

Mention that you saw this article and you can join today for $30—$5 off our regular dues.

You can join with a credit card by calling 651/653-0618 or by visiting our secure website:

www.landstewardshipproject.org. Or send your membership dues to: Land Stewardship

Project, 2200 Fourth Street, White Bear Lake, MN 55110.

IN PRACTICE • SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2001 LAND & LIVESTOCK 9

LAND L I V E S TO C K& A Special Section ofIN PRACTICE

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2001 #79

continued on page 10

In today’s livestock economy, there is a lot of talk about being a

low-cost producer. In Australia, where livestock prices are less

than half what they are in North America, and where most input

costs are greater, there is no choice but to produce at low cost. But

just like most commodity businesses, most Australian beef producers

let cost of production rise to the breakeven point and end up living

on a pretty thin line. If they had a North American price structure,

they’d be getting rich.

Then there are a few guys like Michael Coughlan, who have

figured out how to keep costs so low that even 40 U.S. cents a pound

for a 1,000-pound steer results in a healthy gross profit. Michael and

his wife Anna are Holistic Management practitioners who also are

keenly aware that a vigorous and regenerating land base is key to

maintaining a steady and sustainable flow of solar dollars. To that

end, they have drastically changed the management of their livestock

within their existing fence and water infrastructure. They are now

covering and building soil and increasing biodiversity instead of

gradually losing it. The great part of this story is that they have done

all this without major capital inputs or going into crippling debt. The

major impetus behind their success has been a simple change in the

way they think and make their decisions. We’ll get into the details

of their story below, but first a little background on the Coughlans

and their operation.

The Coughlans currently run close to 2,000 cows, 2,000 yearlings,

and 8,000 sheep on two separate, and very different, properties in

southern New South Wales. Their western place, Tarabah, the focus

of this story, has been Michael’s home since childhood. It’s in a 17-inch

(430-mm) rainfall zone, is mostly flat as a pancake, and including the

neighbor’s place, which they have recently purchased, comprises

45,000 acres (18,200 hectares). Half the cows and yearlings, and all the

sheep graze on Tarabah. The second place, which lies at the base of

the Snowy Mountains is much wetter and supports the other 1,000

Anna and Michael Coughlan with daughter, Isabelle.

When Starting Out—

Keeping Things Simpleby Jim Howell

cows and 1,000 yearlings on 6,000 acres (2,400 hectares). Michael and

one permanent hired man do most of the work on both places, with

contractors brought in for big jobs, like shearing and fence building.

Ta r a b a h

With just 17 inches of expected rainfall, it’s amazing how much

grass this country can grow. The pattern is spread over the whole year,

with a little more coming in the fall, winter, and early spring months

from May to October. Summer rain, unless overly abundant, tends to

be ineffective due to the extremely hot temperatures and high

evaporation rates. Extended periods with daytime highs over 105 F

(40 C) are the norm. Nonetheless, as ground cover improves and

surface evaporation diminishes, the Coughlans are seeing improved

responses from summer precipitation. We’ll get into why that’s

happening below.

On our visit in late April, an inch (25 mm) of rain had just fallen

and the annual cool season grasses were germinating everywhere.

The cool season perennials were starting to green up too. Mild

temperatures allow this high quality forage to keep growing straight

through the winter before really taking off in the spring. As spring

approaches and daytime highs rise, warm season perennials also start

to come on, and if lucky enough to receive some of those summer

thunderstorms, they’ll hold their green after the cool season plants

have died or gone into dormancy. Historically, seven out of ten years

result in decent to excellent winter growing seasons, with very poor

years to total failures occurring the other three.

The eastern half of the property is rolling savanna-woodland

country blessed with several large, meandering creeks that make this

part of the property easier to utilize with the livestock. On the west

end of the property, or “out on the plains,” as Michael says, stock water

10 LAND & LIVESTOCK IN PRACTICE #79

is supplied by windmills. Trees are conspicuously absent, but Michael

is planting tree seedlings in shelterbelts, with early success. What most

definitely isn’t lacking is grass. Even in late April, typically their

toughest time of the year, there was a virtual sea of grass.

Becoming Holistic

Michael and Anna took Australian Holistic Management™ Certified

Educator Bruce Ward’s multi-module course in 1997, and it opened

their eyes to a new world of possibility. It became clear that with

healthy ecosystem processes, everything else—finances, lifestyle, etc.—

would fall into place. But what I love about the Coughlan’s story is

that they haven’t gone gung ho in converting to a new production

model. I’ve seen so many cases, mine included, where initial naive

enthusiasm has led to hard knocks and setbacks. Many of us want

everything to be perfect over night, but that’s not realistic. If we

really are testing our decisions, quick

conversion is seldom holistically sound.

With the new knowledge gained through

their Holistic Management training, the

Coughlans have taken stock of their existing

resources, including livestock, land, and existing

fence and water infrastructure, and figured

out how to make it work, economically and

ecologically, before going into a development

mode. Essentially, this has entailed simplifying

everything down to essential basics, and

devising sound, well-conceived grazing plans.

Admittedly, Michael and Anna are fortunate

in that they were able to start with a reasonable

level of paddocking—71 paddocks on the 45,000 acres, each paddock

averaging just under a square mile at 633 acres. Before acquiring the

neighbor’s property, total paddock numbers were only about 30, and

historically, Tarabah ran many small herds of stock—young cows, old

cows, yearling steers, yearling heifers, old ewes, young ewes, hoggets,

wethers, ram lambs, ewe lambs, etc.—so there were always just a few

paddocks per herd. As on most places, fences were originally built to

keep classes of stock separated, rather than to create more effective

graze/trample : recovery ratios. Now Tarabah runs three herds—

breeding cows, yearling cattle, and sheep (all classes in one giant

mob of 8,000)—on the 71 total paddocks, so number of paddocks

per herd has increased dramatically.

This has allowed for much better time control, more sunlight

harvest, adequate recovery periods, and much more well-spread

animal impact. The result has been (without making any great capital

improvements) drastically improved ecosystem processes—more grass

over more of the year, a more diverse forage species mix, greatly

increased ground cover, and highly effective rates of dung and litter

incorporation into the topsoil. Numerous photo points, as well as

good old-fashioned observation, document these changes. Summer

precipitation, which used to be largely ineffective due to quick surface

evaporation, now holds in the covered soil, bringing life to the warm

season perennials. Dry cool seasons now aren’t so dry, since every

little bit of rain can now do some good. All stock are moved with a

whistle. In the old days when stock were rarely moved, Michael said

making a paddock shift “was always a bloody circus.” Now it’s a

pleasure to go out and move to the next paddock.

The Coughlans do two grazing plans a year, one for the dormant

season, which lasts during the hot months, from the first of November

through the end of April, and one for the cool season, when their

predictable growth occurs, from early May through the end of

October. They plan to take one selection over the course of the 180-

day dormant season, and to graze twice during the growing season,

allowing 90 days of recovery between grazing periods. These fairly

long growing season recovery periods are necessary because their

main growing season is in fact during the cool time of the year, so

even though growth is fairly predictable, it’s never very fast compared

to areas that get good rains in the warm months of the year.

Cattle Management: Focus on Function

The Coughlans manage their cattle following a well-defined, very

simple, and straightforward policy. With only two men doing most of

the work, they can’t afford to get fancy. The calving season lasts for

50 days, from March 1 to April 20, finishing just

before the fall rains commence. Cows are typically

in excellent condition by March 1, despite having

just weathered a long, hot summer, and by the

time the bulls go out, green grass is growing well.

Conception rates therefore approach 90 percent.

On May 10, any cow that hasn’t calved is sorted

off, preg checked, and sold if open. That’s the

only time during the year the cows are worked.

They aren’t vaccinated, dewormed, deloused, or

anything else. If they can’t perform without these

expensive crutches, the Coughlans don’t want

them around. Nor are they individually

identified in any way.

It’s a simple culling strategy—no calf, no home. Calves are all

weaned into one mob on February 1, but by that time many will have

already weaned themselves. On May 15, at about 14 months of age, the

yearlings are sexed, the top heifers are sorted off as replacements and

put directly into the cowherd, and the cull heifers are sold. The steers

are run through their second green season and sold in October at

about 450 kg (990 lbs) live weight at 18 months of age. No protein

or energy supplements are fed at any time of the year.

Their bull-to-cow ratio is 1 to 40. All bulls are selected from low

input seedstock producers. When they arrive at Tarabah they’ve never

had a bite of grain. You’re probably wondering which breed they use.

Believe it or not, all you can find on Tarabah are old-fashioned straight

Herefords. “Ever thought about crossbreeding?” our group asked in

unison. “No, I just want to keep things simple,” said Michael.

It’s Raining Solar Dollars

The Coughlans budget on getting to 14 months post calving (when

the yearlings are worked) with an 80 percent yearling crop, but

they’ve been doing better than that the past few years. That’s 360 kg of

beef per cow per year, and that’s costing them $.30 Australian/kg to

produce, including drawings for family living expenses (and they have

four kids with another one on the way). In American dollars, that

works out to a phenomenally low cost of production of $.075/lb.

Keeping Things Simplecontinued from page 9

The great part of this

story is that they have

done all this without

major capital inputs or

going into crippling debt.

IN PRACTICE • SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2001 LAND & LIVESTOCK 11

That doesn’t include the value of their grass, however.

Leased grazing in their part of Australia costs about US$8/month,

so if we figure in the opportunity cost of that expense, that adds

another US$.12/lb., for a total cost of US$.195/lb. Michael had budgeted

a US$.40/lb. selling price, but at the time of our visit that price had

risen to an all time high of US$.50/lb. So for every pound sold, that’s

a gross profit of US$.20 to .30. Plus, they of course don’t have the out

of pocket expense of a monthly grazing fee. Their realized gross

profit is therefore US$.32 to .42/lb, for a total profit per head per

year of US$250 to US$340. Not bad for a bunch of straight Herefords.

No wonder they bought the neighbor’s place.

N ext Steps

Again, this has all been

achieved with a change in

thinking, a change in focus, a

shift in priorities, a change in

decision-making. Now that their

base operation is operating

profitably and the land is

improving, they are well

positioned to go the next step

and start refining. This will entail

a few major steps. One will be to

sell the sheep and replace them

with cattle, building up to a base

herd of 2,500 breeding cows on

Tarabah. The sheep are too much

work, claims Michael, and he

doesn’t much care for sheep

anyway. Another will be to begin

implementing their land plan, the

aim being to eventually increase

to about 180 paddocks, or enough

to allow daily moves through

their 180-day dormant season

grazing plan.

A third will be the

development of a more reliable

stock water system on the open

plains country. As mentioned

above, a bottleneck to creating

larger herds on that part of the property is stock water. Since they

have gone to managing fewer herds, most of their windmills don’t

have stock watering on them most of the time. To create a water

buffer, they have dug deep holes next to each windmill, and when

the stock are away during the recovery period, the windmills keep

pumping, filling up these ponds once the storage tank is full. Then

when the stock return, and as the storage tank gets low, they pump

out of the pond back into the storage tank. With current herd size,

this works fine, but to get to a herd size of 2,500 cows (or potentially

5,000 head altogether—they’re considering not weaning, and managing

everything as one giant herd), they’ll need more water capacity.

The plan now is to bury, in phases, 60 km (37 miles) of 3-inch

(76-mm) pipe. The water source will be one of their perennial creeks.

The pipeline will empty into a series of simple ponds, much like the

deep holes in the ground they have developed next to their

windmills—no fancy troughs and plumbing, just a hole in the ground.

The water will be pumped directly to whatever pond the cattle are

currently using to water. With a 3-inch line, they’d be able to pump

220,000 liters (55,000 gallons) per day.

Michael asked me to find something to criticize about his operation,

and the only thing I could think to comment on was his seemingly

conservative stocking rate. Again, we were there at the worst time

of the year (end of dormant season), after a season slightly below

average, and it seemed like they had grass coming out their ears.

Michael concurred, but drew our attention to the fact that it probably

looked like they had more grass than they really did. The sea of grass

that impressed us so much was

mostly stems. Michael pointed out

that “they’ve grazed the base out of

it.” Moreover, the cattle, which had

recently finished calving, were in

ideal condition, but they weren’t

rolling in fat by any means. With

a heavier stocking rate, body

condition would have probably

been poorer, with definite financial

consequences. Considering that

yearlings-sold-per-cows-exposed is

about 80 percent, they don’t want

to let body condition fall much

below their current level.

Finally, they do live in Australia,

one of the world’s most drought-

prone countries. Remember those

three years in ten that don’t grow

much new grass. Michael figures

that with their current stocking

rate, they’ll be able to survive the

worst drought without significant

destocking. I also wondered if all

that stemmy material would

accumulate and eventually cause

plants to suffer or die from

overrest, but during their wet cool

season, Michael and Anna assured

us that enough biological decay

takes place to rot off all those

stems at the base and lay them on the soil surface.

We learned several valuable lessons from Michael and Anna:

1) Taking things slowly and thinking things through results in a much

less precipitous learning curve; 2) Keeping things simple minimizes

headaches and keeps the coffers full; and, 3) Focusing on true

generators of wealth, like healthy ecosystem processes, instead of

recreational things, like breeds of cattle, leads to true wealth and

sustainability.

I also appreciated Michael and Anna’s deep knowledge of their

land. They intimately know and understand their environment, and

through this knowledge one can sense the genuine love they feel for

it as well. And maybe that was the greatest lesson we learned. If we

don’t love the land, and know it as well as our human perception will

allow us, can we ever truly be stewards? I doubt that we can.

Thanks, Michael and Anna, for sharing so much with us.

A windmill out on the plains with adjacent pond added for water

storage. Photographer is standing on the pile of earth excavated to

make the pond.

Managing grazing animals at high stock densities requires

good planning, a high skill level, and a commitment to

close daily observation. Without these components, lots

of problems can ensue. Animal performance can crash, widespread

overgrazing can occur, and animal behavior problems can drive an

inexperienced manager crazy. A new practitioner of this style of

management has to be committed to working through the learning

curve till the kinks are worked out.

Because of the complexities involved with managing natural

processes, that can take a long time. The Holistic Management™

Grazing Planning procedure can be of tremendous benefit in

successfully dealing with these numerous complexities. But even

then, fine tuning a highly intensive grazing program (aggressive

stocking rate, high paddock numbers, extensive use of temporary

electric fencing to control time and stock density, frequent stock

moves, etc.) to the point that it’s truly humming often requires

several years, at least.

When I say “truly humming,” I’m referring to a point where

the manager can genuinely say stock performance is generating a

handsome profit, the land and forage are measurably improving,

and daily operations are so easy and labor-efficient that the program

almost runs itself. The more we can do from a technical perspective

to take the vagaries out of managing natural processes and to make

the job as labor-efficient as possible, the easier it may be to arrive at,

or at least approach, this state where everything is working efficiently

and smoothly.

This is especially true when managing animals with both high

production potential and unique behavioral characteristics that are

grazing fast growing, very productive pastures—such as bulls on

irrigated cool-season forage. In New Zealand, bull grazing is a

commonplace enterprise, with bulls of dairy breeding being used

almost exclusively. Instead of castrating bull calves and raising veal

or shoving them into feedlots, New Zealand dairy bulls are left intact

and grown out to maturity on forage, with the bulk of the beef

entering the export ground beef market. The dairy farmers themselves

are too busy milking cows to complicate their lives growing out bulls,

so this enterprise is primarily undertaken by other stock farmers,

many, if not most, of whom specialize in only growing out dairy

bulls. If this sounds like kind of a crazy idea, just keep reading.

When you see the financial possibilities you may change your mind.

12 LAND & LIVESTOCK IN PRACTICE #79

The Te c h n o s y s t e m —

Bull Beef Finishing in New Zealandby Jim Howell

A Common Technosystem Design

Dots indicate

fiberglass post

placement on lane

fences—these posts

serve as guides for

temporary fences.

Each lane contains a herd of bulls whose

density and speed of movement down the

lane is controlled by the temporary wires

running perpendicular to the lanes.

Each small rectangle delineates a “cell.” Vertical lines indicate where

temporary wires would run. Three temporary wires would be up at

a time—a front, a back, and a front wire for the next move.

Solid dark lines are

permanent lane boundaries

made with spider fences.

Every other lane fence has a

permanent water line running under

it with quick-connect hydrants for

Microtrough attachment.

1000 m

400 m

40 m

• • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • • •

IN PRACTICE • SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2001 LAND & LIVESTOCK 13

The Technosystem - A Holistic Fit?

This story is about a package of technology designed to make bull

beef grazing operations “hum” (as well as any other highly intensive,

high performance grazing enterprise). It is called the Technosystem,™

and was developed by Harry Wier. It integrates a complete set of

technologies, including fencing and watering hardware, mapping and

GPS technology, and practical know-how. The Technosystem is a tool,

nothing more, nothing less. It may have the potential to take you

toward your holistic goal, and it may not. If you have the appropriate

forage resource, economically this one looks like a winner. Whether

it wins over what you’re already doing is the question.

Ecologically, it can undoubtedly be designed and managed to

build soil and increase plant vigor and overall biodiversity. Whether

or not you really want to adopt this set of technology, in terms of

how it will affect your lifestyle, is what it really comes down to. If

you think you may want to try out actually grazing bulls within

the Technosystem, it probably won’t be holistically sound for your

situation without a great attitude and a healthy sense of humor,

at least while initially riding the learning curve.

The Technosystem was inspired by the research of Dr. Ray

Brougham at the Aorangi Research Unit in the Manawatu region of

New Zealand’s North Island. Dr. Brougham’s bull beef grazing trials

yielded over 1100 kg of net carcass production per hectare per year

(980 lbs/acre per year). The challenge was to then take these results

and replicate them on a farm scale.

Dr. Brougham’s grazing approach required a huge number of

paddock subdivisions in winter, when plant recovery times are longest.

This can only be practically achieved through the extensive use of

temporary electric fencing and an extensive network of water pipes.

Because of the intensity of subdivision, different approaches to

accessing and working within the fencing infrastructure (by the stock

and the manager), stock handling, and layout of permanent paddocks

also had to be worked out. The result is the Technosystem.

Our tour group was able to witness a Technosystem on the

property of Herstall and Allison Ulrich, owners of Rock Farm and

Emma Flat, near Cave, New Zealand. This part of the South Island

receives an average of 625 mm (25 inches) of annual precipitation,

with summers tending to be dry. Rock Farm consists of 485 hectares

(1200 acres) of steep hills, supporting 2600 ewes. Emma Flat, just down

the road, contains 104 mostly-flat hectares (260 acres), 40 hectares (100

acres) of which are developed as a Technosystem. Emma Flat is used

to finish lambs and bulls, with 65 hectares under irrigation, including

the 40-hectare Technosystem.

Technosystem 101

Before we get into the particulars of Ulrich’s operation, I’ll

describe a few key features of the Technosystem. The permanent

fences are known as “spider fences,”and they consist of 12.5-gauge

(1.6-mm) high-tensile wire, springs, and fiberglass posts. They’re made

to drive over and bounce right back. (More on that later.) These

fences delineate long, narrow, lane-type paddocks, running parallel to

one another—like the lanes in a bowling alley. Each lane contains the

A Microtrough. Animal pushes float with muzzle and trough rapidly

fills with water. Up to 60 bulls can water on a single Microtrough—

they learn to take turns.

same exact total area and carries the same mob of stock for the

entire grazing season. A set of lanes run together as a single unit

defines a “system.” One system, therefore, might have 10 lanes with

10 separate mobs, one mob within each lane.

Each lane is additionally calibrated into equally sized “cells”

(not to be confused with a grazing cell as defined in the Holistic

Management™ Grazing Planning procedure) using GPS equipment.

Think of the cell as a grazing block within the lane. The cell borders

Device that “lets go of” temporary wire with a few good tugs on

opposite end of wire.

continued on page 14

14 LAND & LIVESTOCK IN PRACTICE #79

are delineated by the fiberglass fence posts supporting the permanent

high-tensile wires. If the posts on a particular lane fence are 10 meters

apart and the lane itself is 40 meters wide, each cell within that lane

is therefore 400 square meters.

The cells are arranged so that the posts (which again mark the

boundary of a cell) define a straight line when connected from lane

to lane across the system. This straight line provides a guide for the

temporary fence placement. When the temporary wire is run across

the lanes (i.e., perpendicular to the lanes), 10 mini-paddocks are thus

formed (assuming the system has 10 lanes). When running a class of

stock that can be controlled by one wire, this temporary wire is laid

over the top of the lane fences. When using multi-wire temporary

fences, the wires are run through the permanent lane fences.

A water line runs down every second lane fenceline and there is a

hydrant point every 2 or 3 cells down the lane. A small Microtrough—

designed to water one animal at a time—is connected to the hydrant

where the stock are grazing. Water enters the trough when the

animal’s muzzle depresses the float valve. It’s specially designed for

portable applications with small mobs of stock. If all this sounds

confusing, see the diagram. It’s actually pretty simple.

When it’s time for the daily move onto the new cell or cells (how

many new cells are allocated depends on how fast the stock are being

moved, which depends on growth rate of the forage), the temporary

wire is simply dropped to the ground and the stock walk over it, all

10 mobs (or however many there happen to be) at the same time. One

end of the temporary wire is connected to a slick little patented device

(see photo, page 13) that will “let go” of the wire with four or five good

tugs on the other end of the wire. Before letting the wire fall, a new

front wire has already been constructed delineating the 10 new mini-

paddocks. When the stock move, the wire the stock walked over is

then reconnected and now serves as the back wire. The back wire

from the previous day is then pulled around with the four-wheeler

and becomes the front wire for the next day’s move. The four-wheeler

is equipped with special runners that enable the manager to drive

right over the spider fences (see photo, page 15).

Why All That Wi r e ?

I can hear what you’re all thinking. Why so many small mobs and

all those permanent lanes? Why not have just one mob grazing a long

narrow strip instead of 10 small mobs grazing 10 little blocks? Isn’t that

a lot of infrastructure for no good reason? Okay, fair enough. Here are

the reasons. Ever try to manage 200 bulls going on two years of age in

one herd, at super high density with one-wire electric fence? I didn’t

think so. That scenario spells chaos. That many bulls have an awfully

hard time working out a pecking order. Consequently, they spend too

much time squabbling and breaking down fences and too little time

grazing and gaining weight. But if you split those 200 bulls up into

10 herds of 20, and never mix them again, they have no problem

figuring out how to get along. It turns out as long as there aren’t more

than about 30 bulls in a group, they behave like of bunch of little

angels once they decide who’s boss, and behavioral problems are

eliminated. All of a sudden grazing bulls becomes a viable proposition.

But that’s only one reason for all the lanes. The other primary

reason is one of per-hectare productivity. Each lane, which is identical

in area and therefore total productivity (assuming a uniform pasture,

for which the Technosystem is intended and designed), is stocked

with the same exact total pounds of live weight. Grazing pressure is

therefore kept constant over every square meter. This results in

extremely even forage utilization, with very few severely grazed

plants and very few ungrazed plants. That translates into most plants

retaining an optimum amount of leaf area post-grazing, which results

in greater overall dry matter production and higher pasture quality.

Dung and urine are

also spread extremely

uniformly.

It also enables the

manager to be very

precise in terms of the

amount of forage allocated

per day. Daily growth

rates of stock can

therefore be controlled

with precision as well.

That is, the manager can

ensure excellent average

daily gains over the course

of the grazing season,

and thus high per hectare

production. For the above

reasons, the Technosystem

is not only applicable to bull grazing, but can yield positive results

when growing and finishing any class of stock. Again, this amount

of precision is only possible on very uniform planted pastures. In

the western USA, that means irrigated pasture. Over most of the

central and eastern United States and Canada, however, with

abundant and predictable growing season moisture, this grazing

model has huge potential.

The Ulrichs’ Place

Now, back to the specific case of the Ulrich’s operation. Their

“system” encompasses a 40-hectare area, 400 meters wide and 1,000

meters long. Some 260 Fresian bulls (a Fresian is basically a small

Holstein, one of the main dairy breeds in New Zealand) are grown

and finished annually. They arrive at Emma Flats at 18 months of

age and go off between 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 years. With 10 lanes, each

lane is therefore 40 meters wide and 1,000 meters long (4 hectares

or 10 acres total area).

Depending on the time of year and therefore the growth rate

of the forage, recovery periods range from 110 days in the winter to

30 days in the spring. In other words, during the winter, the bulls

take 110 days to graze the length of each lane. In the spring, they only

take 30 days. More area (i.e., more cells or mini-paddocks) is therefore

allocated per day during the spring than in the slow growth times.

With much smaller daily areas allocated during the winter, daily gains

Bull Beef Finishing in New Zealandcontinued from page 13

It turns out as long as

there aren’t more than

about 30 bulls in a

group, they behave like

of bunch of little angels

once they decide who’s

boss . . . All of a sudden

grazing bulls becomes

a viable proposition.

IN PRACTICE • SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2001 LAND & LIVESTOCK 15

are obviously much lower.

In fact, the bulls only

maintain their weight during

the dead of winter.

As spring comes and they

start to move down the lanes

quicker, however, gains jump

up to 2 kg per day (4.4

lbs/day). The Ulrichs shoot

for a total gain in carcass

weight per hectare of 1,000

kg (they get paid based

on carcass weight, so

they convert liveweight

gain/hectare to carcass

weight gain/hectare),

which would equate to

about 1800 kg of liveweight,

or 1600 pounds of liveweight

gain per acre. That’s like having 4 steers per acre gain 400 pounds

each! At NZ$3.80/kg carcass weight, that’s a gross income of

NZ$3,800/hectare, or US$600/acre. That NZ$3.80/kg carcass weight

equates to about US$ . 38/lbs liveweight. With fat bulls bringing $.55/lb

in the USA, that $600/acre would turn into $870/acre. Maybe all

those fences make sense after all. But again, here is where you need

to step back and reassess holistically. Maybe the best spot for a

Technosystem on your place is right where your highly prized

upland game bird habitat happens to be, and you not only love game

birds, but the patch of ground they call home generates $800/acre in

annual hunting fees. Converting that piece of ground to uniform

cool-season pasture with fences all over it probably wouldn’t be the

best decision in your case.

When the bulls reach the end of the lane, it’s time to go back to

the front and start all over. Again, this would happen at the end of

30 days in the spring to a maximum of 110 days in the winter.

According to Herstall, that’s when the track meet starts. When the

bulls realize they have a free run for 1,000 meters, the race is on. The

further they go back up the lane, however, the better the grass gets

(since it’s had the longest to recover), so they start getting distracted

and slowing down, regaining their composure without busting

through the top of the lane.

The bulls in two of the ten lanes are weighed once per month

during the winter, to make sure the bulls are at least maintaining their

weight. All the bulls are weighed at least twice over the course of

their time in the system, just to make sure gains are on track. Herstall

likes to use straight Fresian bulls, since Jerseys and Jersey crosses tend

to get too fat before reaching the desired target finish carcass weight

of 340 kg (750 lbs), or a liveweight of 620 kg (1,360 lbs). Sourcing

these straight Fresian genetics is becoming tougher to do, since most

New Zealand dairy genetics are now at least part Jersey.

To ensure adequate gains during their typically dry summers,

the 40 hectares under the Technosystem (as well as 25 more

hectares on Emma Flats) is

irrigated. Every 22 days,

65 mm (2.5 inches) is

applied over the course of

an 8-hour run with a

traveling gun. Herstall also

follows a highly precise soil

fertility program to ensure

high levels of forage

production. He uses what’s

called a Perry Test, which

indicates exactly what’s

needed to precisely balance

the soil’s fertility. Since

using the Perry Test

and amending the soil

accordingly, forage

production and quality have

improved dramatically.

And the Cost?

What does it cost to set up a Technosystem? That depends

somewhat on the lay of the land, how fancy you want to get with

the fencing and watering hardware, how regular the boundaries are,

and whether or not it is adapted to sheep. The simplest and cheapest

estimate, which would be designed for cattle on flat land utilizing

the most basic hardware, works out to NZ$281/hectare. The most

expensive application (on hilly ground, fancier hardware,

accommodates sheep, irregular boundaries) would cost around

NZ$468/hectare (in US$/acre, this is a range from $45 to $76). That’s

pretty cheap considering the potential returns.

Unfortunately for our tour group, our visit in mid-April just

happened to coincide with the short window of the year when no

bulls are on the place. The Ulrichs aim to have all the bulls sold by

March (late summer in New Zealand). They begin sorting off and

selling the biggest bulls in December (mid summer), and this

continues through February. When the bulls are gone they bring on

weaned lambs from the other property, The Rock, to finish on the

Technosystem into the fall. Nonetheless, we got to see how the fences

and water system are laid out, how the four-wheeler drives right over

the high tensile wires, and we sure asked Herstall and Harry a lot of

questions, which they patiently and thoroughly answered.

The Technosystem isn’t for everyone. Right in the Technosystem

literature, it states that one “should not proceed unless you can see

yourself accepting a radical change and enjoying this style of farming.”

This brings us back to the holistic perspective once again. The

Technosystem is a tool just like anything else. It has the potential to

fit into a holistically managed operation if it passes towards that

operation’s holistic goal. Only you can decide if it fits or not.

Harry Wier can be reached at kiwitechint@xtra.co.nz,

and Herstall Ulrich at h-ulrich@xtra.co.nz

Four-wheeler equipped with special runners driving o ver a spider fence.

16 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #79

Rocky Mountain Institute Project

Early this year, the Savory Center and

Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) formed

a partnership to incorporate Holistic

Management into RMI’s responsibilities for

managing the lands of the Windstar Land

Conservancy (WLC).

RMI and the Savory Center have had a

long, but informal, association. It is not unusual

to find both Hunter Lovins (one of RMI’s

founders) and Allan Savory at the same

conferences providing back-to-back keynote

talks. This project gives us our first opportunity

to really work together, and both organizations

plan to make it an enduring partnership.

WLC is a joint effort of RMI and the

Windstar Foundation (WF), founded by John

Denver and Aikido master Tom Crumb to

hold and manage about 1,000 acres of prime

land in Pitkin County—near Aspen, Colorado.

The land, which includes a key elk corridor,

encompasses a small valley and the slopes that

form its water catchment. It was purchased and

put in trust for the use of RMI and WF and the

enjoyment of the public. RMI houses a portion

of its activities in a facility on the land.

The purpose of the work we are doing

on the land is to produce an overall,

restorative land-use plan that provides

educational opportunities for the public, and

opportunities for both RMI and the Savory

Center to educate people in a variety of land

rehabilitation technologies.

This year we have focused on creating a

holistic goal and a holistic land plan and the

basic ideas of the educational programming

we want in the future. Because the land is

experiencing some invasion of noxious weeds

and soil erosion, the RMI/Savory Center team

also decided to bring in livestock—cattle and

others in the community, the results we

achieve with Holistic Management and what it

can produce in managing small plots. This will

help residents of this area find improved ways

to bring living, agriculture, recreation, and

conservation together as the interdependent

“wholes” they already are.

C a l i fornia Agriculture Leadership

Wo r k s h o p s

In June, Allan Savory (with assistance from

Executive Director Shannon Horst) provided

three workshops for rural communities in

California. These workshops were hosted by

the Agriculture Education Foundation of

California, which is the oldest—and widely

considered the best—leadership program in

the US for people in the agriculture industry.

The workshops were held in and around

the Central Valley, including Morgan Hill,

Santa Margarita and the Harris Ranch on the

west side of the San Joaquin Valley. These

communities are facing everything from

rapid urbanization and the loss of farms, to

contamination from selenium, and the drying

up and diversion of groundwater resources.

The Savory Center and the Foundation

provided the workshops as an opportunity for

the community members to see whether the

Holistic Management™ decision-making process

might help them in managing their future

growth and addressing the root cause of

these serious problems.

Savory Center members in California were

instrumental in supporting these workshops,

and we are grateful for their help. To find

out more about the Foundation, visit their

website at www.agleaders.org

Colorado Holistic Management

G a t h e r i n g

The Colorado Branch did a great job of

organizing Whole Land: Healthy People, a

celebration of Holistic Management on

July 27-29th at the Chico Basin Ranch near

goats—to be used as tools to cycle carbon,

cover soil, invigorate perennial grasslands and

irrigated pasture, and to browse the invasive

plants. A nearby rancher, Steve Childs, is

providing the animals.

RMI has also invested a lot of time and

resources into developing and restoring

wetlands in the lower reaches of the valley.

Over Memorial Day and again in July for two

weeks, volunteers, including Windstar members

and the Landmark Volunteers, spent time

developing a hiking trail that wanders

throughout the bottomlands, slopes and

aspen forests.

The county where the WLC land lies is

facing serious issues of urbanization, a growing

gap between the extremely wealthy and the

population that serves them (i.e. affordable

housing), and deteriorating health of the

land. Thus, the RMI/Savory Center team have

identified that the educational opportunities—

hiking, bird and game viewing, horseback

riding and cross-country skiing in the

winter—on this land must result in influencing

the way people live their lives as part of the

greater ecosystem.

One of the key challenges of the growth

patterns in Pitkin County is the splitting up

of large ranches into small 3- to 1,000-acre lots,

so called “ranchettes.” These holdings are

extremely difficult to mange from a biological

standpoint, and often new owners arrive with

no skills or knowledge when it comes to

managing rangelands, forested areas, or river

valleys and wetlands.

On the other hand, they also have no

preconceived notions about resource

management. Thus, the RMI/Savory Center

team hope that we will create, through

education, an effective way to share with

dwellers, recreationists, business owners and

S a vory Center Bulletin Board

Shannon Horst (right) and WLC Land

Manager, Paul Buch, (left) and interns

monitoring land health.

Windstar Land Conservancy (WLC)

Allan Savory leading workshop.

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2001 17

Colorado Springs, Colorado. Approximately 200 people

attended this gathering and there were many positive

comments about what they learned. One participant

noted that the conversations alone were worth the

price of admission.

Allan Savory gave the keynote address to kick off

the conference, and he exhorted everyone to be a leader

in bringing Holistic Management to their communities.

He also asked people who do win awards for their

work on the land to acknowledge how Holistic

Management helped them create the results they

have achieved.

Excellent workshops followed this keynote over the

next two days led by practitioners and educators in the

areas of biological monitoring, riparian area management,

birding, grass identification, and families and farming.

Participants rounded out their day with chuckwagon

style food and Cajun and country western music at

night. At the closing session the Colorado Branch

challenged the Texas Branch to organize the next

international gathering in the U.S. We hope to hear back

from the Texans if they will accept the challenge and

tell us when we can expect the next gathering. Our

sincere thanks go out to the Colorado Branch, especially

Cindy Dvergsten, and Duke Phillips and the Chico Basin

Ranch staff for all their hard work.

N ew Products

The Savory Center is pleased to announce two

new products. We now offer organic cotton

t-shirts manufactured by Patagonia decorated with

a silkscreened Savory Center logo. They cost $15 for

U.S. residents and additional shipping information

is on the back page.

We also recently published a 44-page booklet of

Holistic Management “success stories” titled Holistic

Management: A New Environmental Intelligence . This

publication is a good companion piece to the Holistic

Management IN PRACTICE Special Edition because it

provides specific examples of what people have

accomplished with Holistic Management, particularly in

the context of wildlife habitat loss and environmental

conflicts. This publication costs $15 (U.S. residents), and

can be ordered using the form on the back page.

S a vory Center Named in

Charitable Remainder Trust

The Savory Center was recently

named in a charitable remainder

trust created by Kim McDodge of

Portland, Oregon. Kim became

involved with the Savory Center

about three years ago after hearing

Allan Savory speak at a Natural Step

Conference. She really liked what he

had to say about the “triple bottom

line.” But as she learned about Holistic

Management, she felt that the financial

planning was particularly helpful and

accessible at the household level.

After that conference, Kim went home and ordered materials from the Savory Center

and taught herself Holistic Management. When she received an unexpected inheritance,

she contacted Holistic Management™ Certified Educator Christopher Peck who specializes

in financial planning.

Christopher suggested that she create a charitable remainder trust as a win-win

situation for Kim. She wanted to use the money to support organizations that do good

work, provide diversity, and work toward a regenerative process. She didn’t want the

money lost to taxes. She particularly named the Savory Center because she wanted to

help move our work forward and get the word out about Holistic Management because

she feels it is a sensible solution to many of the issues we face today.

Kim was also interested in pursuing this type of investment because it kept her life

simple, which is important to her. Christopher worked with Kim to help her determine

the best investment of her money, given her holistic goal. The charitable remainder trust

fit the bill.

With a charitable remainder trust, the donor transfers income to a trust and receives

an annual income from the interest. Upon the donor’s death, the remainder of the trust is

given to the charity named by the donor. In this case, the Savory Center will share the

trust with the Land Institute, and Pattern Language Foundation. Even though the charity

does not receive the trust, until after the donor is deceased, the donor receives an

immediate income tax deduction.

While the percentage that can be used for income tax deduction will vary depending

on your income, the charity that you are giving to, and other variables, a basic example

might look something like this.

You decide to set up a charitable remainder trust of $50,000 (this type of trust is

irrevocable). Instead of being taxed on this $50,000 of income, you would receive a tax

break of around 43 percent, which means you would be taxed on $28,500 instead. As

well as the $21,500 tax break, you could expect an annual income of five percent or

more of the trust’s value. You can even add to the trust to increase your tax break and

receive greater annual income.

For more information about Charitable Remainder Trusts, contact Christopher Peck

at: ctopherp@holistic-solutions.net, or 707/824-5650.

Training Program Grant

The Savory Center recently received an anonymous $5,000 donation to support the

2001 Holistic Management™ Certified Educator Training Program to be held in

upstate New York. The training program begins on October 27, 2001 and currently is at

maximum capacity with a diverse pool of trainees from the government, non-profit,

and private sectors.

Kim McDodge and her partner, Terence Dodge

D evelopment Corner by Andy Braman

“The conversations alone were worth the price of

admission.”